Exclusive: As the cost-of-living crisis forces small Australian businesses to close physical stores, one unlikely niche seems to be thriving: romance book stores.

It's because they offer something online shopping "could never compete with".

Once considered taboo, romance is now one of the biggest fiction genres in Australia and accounts for tens of millions of dollars in book sales every year.

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Online book communities and successful book-to-film and -TV adaptations, like Bridgerton and Heated Rivalry, have only made it more mainstream.

But most Aussie readers aren't satisfied with e-books and buying novels online.

More than 75 per cent prefer physical books according to Monash University research, and they're willing to pay a premium for them.

It's all great news for Scarlett Hopper.

She opened Romancing The Novel in Paddington, Sydney less than two years ago and business has been booming.

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It's been so successful that while other retailers are struggling to keep the lights on in one store, Hopper is opening a second location in New Farm, Brisbane this August.

"It's a testament to romance because people used to shame it, they would knock it," Hopper told nine.com.au.

"And they still do, don't get me wrong.

"But clearly something is really working because it's a billion dollar [global] industry."

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